The Los Angeles Times predicts András Schiff’s recording of the Diabelli Variationen will be ‘the standout Beethoven recording of the year’

The two-disc set is a richly nuanced look at late Beethoven (it also includes Beethoven’s last sonata, Opus 111, played on the piano and his Bagatelles, Opus 126, on the historic fortepiano). This is a Beethoven reaching for spiritual heights, conveying hair-pulling emotional drama, envisioning a music of the future of new sounds and complexities and also fooling around like the goofy genius he also was. Schiff, in what is likely to be the standout Beethoven recording of the year, misses nothing.Mark Swed, The Los Angeles Times

The Washington Times on the music of Dobrinka Tabakova as recorded on String Paths

‘String Paths,’ Dobrinka Tabakova’s stunning recording debut: As young composers continue to migrate en masse from the strictures of academic modernism, Dobrinka Tabakova is the latest breath of fresh air in this ongoing aesthetic revolution. While her music has been a regular staple in concert halls across Europe over the past several years, ‘String Paths’ represents her first major commercial release. As is often his way, Manfred Eicher of ECM Records has gifted us a memorable palette of the composer’s sensual sound, resulting in yet another ECM New Series recording to which listeners will return again and again. [...] Tabakova’s ‘String Paths’ is an original and exciting, deeply moving, and triumphant commercial recording debut. What’s more, there is something immediate and personal about her music that will prove the envy of many of her peers. Tabakova may be using the musical materials of tradition, but through them she has broken new paths, while young composers are sure to take notice and be inspired.Mark Nowakowski, The Washington Times

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung finds the intensity in the interplay of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette on Somewhere overwhelming

US-website All About Jazz on Shadow Man, the new album by Tim Berne's Snakeoil

New York-based alto saxophonist Tim Berne has long been regarded one of the Downtown scene's most forward-thinking bandleaders. Among his peers, no other artist has so often fostered the creative talent of subsequent generations; multi-instrumentalist Chris Speed, keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Jim Black all spent their formative years playing alongside the veteran saxophonist. Likewise, Berne recently recruited rising multi-instrumentalist Oscar Noriega, pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Ches Smith as members of his latest project, Snakeoil.
Shadow Man is the sophomore follow-up to the multi-generational quartet's critically acclaimed self-titled 2012 ECM debut, signifying the first time the esteemed leader has been signed to a major label since his late 1980's tenure with Columbia Records. [...] Although Berne's interest in free improvisation has been well documented over the past two decades, Snakeoil establishes a welcome return to composing. Eschewing convention, Berne's singularly oblique narratives convey dramatic tension through labyrinthine arrangements that seamlessly juxtapose freewheeling improvisation with intricate formal constraints. Fortified by four years spent touring together, Noriega, Mitchell and Smith interpret the leader's thorny frameworks with bold invention, instilling his coiled themes with youthful fervor.Troy Collins, All About Jazz

A German reviewer enjoys listening to Ralph Towner, Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan on Travel Guide

There seems to be a growing group of totally amazing soloists on instruments which previously were not considered legitimate solo instruments in either classical or jazz: ukelele, banjo, erhu, harmonica and now—with performers like Chris Thiele—the mandolin. Hamilton de Holanda, of Brazil, is the world’s master of the bandolim, a ten-string mandolin. He and his cohort, the Italian jazz pianist Stefano Bollani, have an absolutely amazing empathy, and their enthusiasm for what they are doing is contagious and most exciting. [...]It was a mark of the performers’ confidence in their trust and improvisational chops that they decided to record this album live. They obviously want to maintain a feeling of spontaneity and risk in the recording that must be present in spades at their live performances. And of course Manfred Eicher has preserved the duo in the best possible fidelity.John Henry, Audiophile Edition